A duffel bag full of garbage and a spider the size of my hand

This weekend I visited the Provincial town to pick up my mail, mail some letters, and go to the bank. It's amazing that these tasks require an overnight stay and about 4-5 hours of traveling all together.

In Cambodia there is trash EVERYWHERE! Without a formal collection system, the trash takes over my life. Sometimes people burn it (usually right as I'm sitting down to eat my dinner), sometimes it is dumped on the side of the road and just blows around in the wind, other times it is lunch for the cows. I honestly have no clue what to do with my trash. I can't bring myself to burn it, so I usually take it to the provincial town where there is a semi-regular trash collection program. I'm sure the trucks just collect the trash and dump it in the marshes outside of town, but this is the best I can manage.

My trash disposal plan involves throwing it into a duffel bag, riding the 35k to town, then sneaking around after dark trying to find an empty trash container to toss it in. This was my weekend....fascinating, right?

The night before I left, the neighbor kids were playing with a huge spider outside my house. They told me not to worry because they cut the fangs off and it couldn't bite. It creeped me out, but I had to take some pictures.

Plastic sacks and broken eggs

Now that I live at the school I cook for myself, which requires one or two trips to the market everyday. I don't actually go to the big market because it's kind of far away and I don't want to ride my bike in the afternoon heat, so I stop at a small food stall on the side of a dusty road near my usual lunch restaurant. I usually buy a sack full of vegetables for about 25 cents. I can not bring myself to buy meat from the market because it sits out in the heat all day long covered with flies, and is on top of the table that the chickens and dogs walk all over. So, the solution is to eat chicken eggs. Eggs and coconuts are my saving grace in Cambodia. I sure miss 24 hour Safeway with its endless dairy section, bakery, and ice cream isle!

This afternoon after class I bought a plastic sack full of eggs from the school and walked down to the food stand for some tomatoes. Long story short, I forgot about the eggs for a while as they were in my school bag. I got home and about half of the eggs were broken, but thankfully the plastic sack saved my books from getting warm egg goop all over my books.

I was REALLY angry at first because I wasted a whole 20 cents. But, it reminded me of this time when my sister and I were kids helping my mom carry groceries into the house from the car. I was in charge of taking in the toilet paper and Amy was supposed to get the bag full of 2 dozen eggs. Being Amy, she started hopping around like a maniac and flung the eggs over her shoulder and broke them all. My mom was so mad at her. We still won't let Amy live that one down. Kind of like the case of the missing Nike gloves (a decade long search and argument that ended last year when Amy came clean with the truth).

Anyway, I wanted to tell this story and post a picture of the egg incident and say "Hey mom, remember that time Amy broke the eggs and you got really mad at her because you had to drive back to the store and buy more?"

Also, the second picture is of my transportation to and from the market and some of the purchases from last week. I needed a new broom to chase the cockroaches out of my house at night. I hate them.

I ain't got nothing but love babe...

I recently taught some of my students how to say a Beatles phrase that I know my mom will get a kick out of. It took some explaining before they understood what "Eight days a week" means. I've created little monsters! Now they say that phrase with everything:

"Teacher, I miss you eight days a week."
"Teacher, you teach me English eight days a week."
Teacher, I eat rice eight days a week."

These outbursts are followed by fits of laughter by the students and me shaking my head thinking "that's great, but can you please finish conjugating these irregular verbs in the past tense?"

Quack quack

I moved up to the school on Friday and I’m really enjoying it so far. It’s taken my entire 6 months to come to terms with the fact that personal space and privacy are obscure ideas here. Large families and small houses are the norm, so I’m having to adjust my habits and responses to stay sane. The Khmer family I lived with previously afforded little privacy, and my living situation now has even less. I live across the street from lots of the teachers, and my house has become the new playground for all of the kids.

They love to watch me doing anything…..washing my clothes, reading a book, working on lesson plans. Today about ten of the kids were huddled on my floor watching while I cut up a pineapple. They make me smile and I’m learning lots about how to not let little things get to me. In conversations with other foreigners who have worked in Asia, I’ve learned that the lack of personal space is pretty spot on in most countries here. It’s a struggle some days when I just want to go get a coffee without 34 kids screaming “Hello, what’s your name? Where you go?” at me. The lack of privacy makes me appreciate the moments that I do find to spend by myself.

This evening I made some penne pasta with powdered pesto sauce that I bought at the Western Market in Siem Reap. The neighbor kids came over to my house to see what I was cooking and I offered them some noodles. They were so cute when trying the food. A few of them looked at me like I was trying to give them a poisonous apple. Eventually everyone tried the pasta, and it was quite a hit. I’m bracing myself to talk to everyone tomorrow about pasta, where it comes from, how much it costs, and if I like it more than Khmer food. I always lie and say that I like Khmer food better than non-Khmer. Inevitably everything I eat and do becomes the talk of the town. The fact that I didn’t eat my pasta with rice will be the newest joke to tell about the barong. Sigh.

I’ve been staying really busy at school lately. In addition to teaching my regular 11th and 12th grade classes, I’ve started a 3 month English camp for two students who have been awarded scholarships to study at a University in Thailand. Before they are accepted into the program they have to drastically improve their Thai and English language skills. I work with the girls 5 afternoons a week and I’m really enjoying it, despite it being an incredibly challenging task.

I thought maybe everyone would enjoy this picture, unless you’re a PETA supporter. It’s amazing how much stuff can fit on motos. I will try to take some good pictures of ridiculous moto cargo. A few weeks ago I saw a moto with three full sized mattresses tied on the back somehow. Once I saw three motos in a row cruising down the road and each one had four monks plus a driver. All you could see was a streak of orange. Cambodia’s nice this time of year. Come visit me!

Also, I found some old pictures of time spent in Tabernash during the teepee days. This one was taken when Marissa and Adrianne visited me. We had a big bonfire and lots of redneck fun and redneck beer.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I know it's been a while since the last post. My mom has mentioned this fact about 30 times in the past month. So mom, here ya go. I mostly didn't feel like posting the past month because I was pretty homesick over the holidays. Not that Christmas has come and gone (thank you for the fabulous Christmas packages everyone!) I'm feeling much more upbeat.

I stay really bust at the school and get home at night just exhausted. I have a new appreciation for all of the effort that my teachers in the past put into their classes. I've picked up some side projects and clubs at the school and I enjoy working with the students.

Since I'm so busy at school, I've decided to make a move from my current house up to the teachers' housing section at the school. Next weekend I'll be moving into my new place. My school really set me up with a nice place. The hospitality in Cambodia is incredible. I'll miss that part of the culture more than anything.

Today marks 6 months that I've been in country! I can hardly believe that I've only got a year and a half more to get all of my work done. Time is flying by.

I'll post some pictures and more stories soon (next week maybe when I have internet access at the school). Take care everyone.

Not much to update on this week. Two weekends ago I rode in the Angkor Wat bike race, which was a blast! Thank you to all who donated. We started out early in the morning right as the sun was peeking out from behind the temples. It was even a little chilly while riding through the gigantic forest surrounding the temple complex. My favorite part of the ride was when I was crunching the fallen leaves under my bike tires. It made me homesick for the Colorado falls.

The day after the race, some of the PCV’s and I went to a concert at Angkor Wat. The five famous temples were lit up and served as the backdrop of the stage. The performers were just okay at best, but the scenery made my night.

When I returned to my site, my host brother ran out to tell me that our dog had puppies! We’ve now got two mangy dogs and six adorable pups that can fit in the palm of my hand. They’re cute now, but I wonder how I’ll feel when they get fleas and start chewing on my things.

Last week I came to terms with the fact that I’m an awful English teacher. I don’t think that my students are picking up on anything I’m teaching about. It’s partly because of my complete lack of experience, and partly because the English materials we work with are useless. Incorrect grammar, spelling, and irrelevant story lines are the norm. The good news though is that I’ve taken over the library as my pet project. The Thais brought two new monitors for the computers that were sitting unused in the corner. Some of the twelfth grade students helped me to clean the inch of dust off the shelves. I’ve been spending my time trying to organize everything. Remember how I worked at Barnes and Noble for a while and hated shelving books after the café closed? Well, that’s now the job I have. Oh, the irony. It’s more enjoyable now though because I get to hang out with the kids. The school asked me to help write letters to NGO’s for more book donations. Originally I planned on doing this, but changed my mind after finding a couple hundred English books in the back room that were never set out for the students in the first place.

Sinking more and more money into a system that’s not working to begin with is useless, but seems to be the common method over here. My school has been given a ton of educational resources: microscopes, computers, lab rooms, even a small farm. It rivals many American high schools with regard to material resources. However, the science labs are always locked up and the director has the only key. The reasoning I’m told: “We need to protect the school’s things from the students.” I’m running into this issue daily and it’s hard to keep motivated. I’ve changed my focus from helping teachers improve their English to being a friend and mentor to the students. I keep a ton of office hours and welcome students in all grades to come practice their English with me. I’m working with students from a wide range of abilities. Sometimes the 7th graders come in to read with me, and other times I get questions about writing CV’s from the 12th graders. I like this approach better.

So goes life in Cambodia. From what my sister and my mom tell me, it’s been cold back home. I’m still terribly homesick, but it’s getting better. I anticipated being really lonely during the holidays, but it’s turning out alright. It’s hard to miss Christmas when it’s 80 degrees out and you’re surrounded by rice and palm trees. Merry Christmas everyone, and Happy New Year! Please eat lots of turkey, pumpkin pie and light a sparkler for me.

PS I took the last picture a couple of weeks ago when two planets and the moon happened to line up in a smiley face. My host family was so excited that I got a good picture and they made me show it to everyone who came over to the house for a week afterwards.

First picture is of me (left) and another PCV in front of Angkor Wat. Second is of one of the pups.

Bike Race!

Everything's going smooth at site. I'm finally getting some sort of a schedule down and meeting more and more of the students everyday. I have set up a fair number of office hours each week that students can come for English help and there have been a few that stop by to practice and ask questions. Last Thursday I helped a student for a half an hour or so and when getting up to leave he tried to pay me for the help. The school's are run a little different here because the daytime classes are free, but any private lessons are not. The catch is that some teachers withhold the important information from the day classes, thus forcing the students to pay for private lessons in order to get the curriculum that is covered on the national exam in May. Frustrating, I know.

This coming weekend I will be traveling up to Siem Reap to partake in a bike race fundraiser at Angkor Wat. I'm going to ride in the short 30K road race (on my PC junker of a mountain bike) on Saturday morning. It should be quite the event and I'm really looking forward to it! If anyone wants to sponsor me, visit the website at: http://www.villagefocus.org/angkor_marathon/
The organization putting on this event is mostly involved in anti-child trafficking and land mine causes. If you feel like sending over a few bucks, go to the website and click on the "Sponsor" link. Click on my name and follow the steps. Thanks in advance to anyone who donates!